Dorman grad Scott Fowler writes first novel

Wednesday

Dec 12, 2012 at 12:01 AM

For children, Christmas Eve can be the most magical night of the year. But it is easy to imagine how in an instant, anticipation might turn to tragedy, presenting challenges that force children to assume adult responsibilities.

By BEVERLY KNIGHTFor the Herald-Journal

For children, Christmas Eve can be the most magical night of the year. But it is easy to imagine how in an instant, anticipation might turn to tragedy, presenting challenges that force children to assume adult responsibilities.In “Lost on the Road to Nowhere,” Scott Fowler, an award-winning journalist who grew up in Spartanburg and graduated from Dorman High School, takes four children on a journey of discovery, one on which they come to truly understand what it means to be a family and turn tragedy to hope.The idea for this young-adult book grew out of the author's desire to write a story for his own children — Chapel, Salem, London and Georgia — who love to read and be read to. Not coincidentally, the four children in “Lost on the Road to Nowhere” bear the names and many of the same characteristics as his own children.The story chronicles the adventure of the children — 11, 8, 5 and nearly 2 — who are stranded in the middle of nowhere when their parents are badly injured in a car accident in the North Carolina mountains. After their father takes an ill-advised shortcut on the way to their grandparents' house for Christmas, they seem to be on a “road to nowhere” even before he has to swerve to miss a deer and fawn in the road.During the next 18 hours, the children are forced to rely on each other as they face cold, hunger, fatigue, bears and a mysterious old woman. But they are determined to save themselves and get help for their injured parents, despite the daunting obstacles.“The whole thought is they have to do this themselves and learn to deal with very difficult situations without their parents,” Fowler said. “It's something everyone has to do at some point.”The family dynamic in the story is one that most children with siblings can identify with, even down to the squabbling in the backseat of the minivan on a long road trip.“It's about sibling rivalry, which I think almost anybody who's ever had a brother or a sister can relate to,” Fowler said.The book, which has already been read and studied in classrooms for its lessons on teamwork, resilience and grace, is recommended for ages 8 and older.The Fowler children were so excited when they learned their father was working on a story that they were a part of, that he had to read them new chapters as he finished them, sometimes relying on their reactions to help him edit dialogue and shorten parts of the story that seemed to lull them to sleep. And because the story began as a personal piece, the author mixed incidents and conversations from the family's travels with the fictional story of the accident.

Though this book represents his first foray into fiction, the sports columnist for the Charlotte Observer is the author or co-author of five nonfiction sports books, “What It Means to Be a Tar Heel,” “Year of the Cat,” “Tales from the Carolina Panthers Sideline,” “North Carolina Tar Heels: Where Have You Gone?” and “Jimmy Black's Tales from the Tar Heels.”He has won numerous national awards for his newspaper work and has made appearances on ESPN and as a guest of sports-radio talk shows. Although he is primarily a sports writer, the fledgling fiction writer has also written columns about fatherhood and politics.It is no surprise to his high school teachers that he has gone on to a successful life with words. Fowler, a 1983 graduate of Dorman High School, was a member of the school's championship academic team. Jan Francis, the academic team coach and Fowler's sophomore and junior honors English teacher, always expected that he would become a writer.“First impressions are generally dependable,” Francis says. “When Scott Fowler wrote his initial assignment in my classroom at age 14, I knew that he was destined to become a professional penman. Stringing words together effectively and pleasurably comes as naturally to Scott as his engaging smile.”The path to his first work of fiction might have begun in high school, but it was honed when he worked two summers at the Herald-Journal while in college at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Then after graduation in 1987, he worked for the Miami Herald before moving closer to home in 1994 to take the job covering sports for the Observer.Fowler, his wife Elise and the children who made the book possible live just outside Charlotte. His parents, Abby and Steve, and sister Mary still live in Spartanburg.A book signing for “Lost on the Road to Nowhere” will take place at the Hub City Bookshop from 1-3 p.m. Saturday. For information, visit www.lostontheroadtonowhere.com or www.hubcity.org/bookshop.